24
Apr
2024
Watch
Formal sitting - 20th Anniversary of the 2004 EU Enlargement
Madam President, President of the Commission, Commissioners, honourable guests, colleagues, today we celebrate a historic milestone, a day in which millions of us – me included – were reunited with European society after decades of forced isolation. It is a day we longed for since regaining our freedom in the late 1980s and early 1990s. I remember feeling immense pride at our countries that, after decades in shadows of oppressive communist regimes, in just 15 short years we were welcomed in the European Union. Reflecting on the past two decades, I am struck by the remarkable progress we have made. I see the spread of our shared democratic values across the continent. A beacon of hope in a nowadays world with a ruthless aggressor just at our borders. Personally, I have witnessed not only improvements in our living standards, but also in the quality of our environment in our cities and villages back home. Yet we must not rest on one’s laurels, an idiom which we say a lot in Czechia. We face attempts for disintegrating the Union from the inside, attacks on its core values and principles, erosions of the rule of law and attempts to curtail democracy in several European countries. We must continue to strive for an ever-closer Union: one that is inclusive, sustainable and prosperous. A Union capable of swift actions. A Union which is immune to blackmail, not only from the outside, but mainly not from the inside. A Union that stands as a major global player. For that, we need a strong, united political will, a will I sense daily in this Parliament and we hope to feel equally from our prime ministers and political leaders. Only together we stand stronger. Long live Europe.